Right and Wrong (Part 2)

Leonard pushed the door open and stepped inside the tower. It was a rather small circular room fully furnished with old wooden pieces. A big chair was near the wall with the window, fully upholstered, resembling a modern armchair. The person in this tower probably had to sit here for a long time. A comfortable armchair was a must then.

The holy saintess sat down in that armchair, making herself comfortable. Then, the Moon Princess raised her head, her deep blue eyes gazing at him.

Leonard lowered his head and dropped onto his knees.

“Please, forgive me, Your Grace,” he said. “I let my emotions get ahold of me, not thinking about the consequences of my own actions.”

“This was supposed to be your first night guarding my tower. I wanted to discuss that with you. You won the tournament with that big sword of yours,” she said, smiling at him. “And now I hear a ruckus outside, and I find out that the tournament was not enough for you, and you are fighting with my priests, also. What shall I do to quench that thirst of yours?”

Leonard dared to look at her, confused. Her words sounded strange. Sticky. Was she trying to flirt with him instead of punishing him, or was he losing his mind? She didn’t look like a saintess either. That dark blue dress of hers was pretty, but too flashy for such a reverent figure.

“You won the swordsmanship tournament. People adore you for your fighting skills. You will be my personal guard, always near me,” she said. “But you need to behave. But if you are bloodthirsty, I can help with that.”

Selena turned and took a golden chalice into her hand. He did not notice that the chalice was already standing there, ready to seal his fate.

“You swore to protect me when you joined my guards,” she said, showing him a smile. “I would like to make a small ritual out of it. I prepared a wine for you. Drink it as a token of your loyalty and obedience to me.”

Leonard stood up and took the golden chalice out of her hand. Inside, he could see the blood swirling around. They already had a theory about the powers of the holy saintess.

The Moon Princess? More like the Blood Princess.

According to Mira, she was using her own blood to control not only living people, but also to raise the dead. But her spells were incomplete, some of her creations ending in failures.

Leonard looked at the saintess. He really wanted to be her guard. People in Silgorod were treating her like an asset, willing to march to the Lunaria on their horses to kidnap her. He didn’t agree with that.

“I cannot drink this wine, Your Grace,” he said solemnly.

“Why?”

“I want you to trust me. I want to trust you. It is never right to control someone and make him your own slave.”

Selena smiled. This was Leonard, for sure. Always playing a hero, always trying to do the right thing. Then he complained when it ended up wrong, and no one was celebrating his effort.

Selena started laughing. Before, she would admire his aspirations. Now, she was able to see that he was only playing a victim. She found him obnoxious and weak.

Selena stood up from her chair. Taking the golden chalice back from his hand, she turned it over and poured all the blood onto the floor. She then threw it onto the stained carpet. She stepped closer to him, raising her hand to him.

“Okay, then,” she said. “Let's start with the introductions.”

“I am Leonard,” he said immediately, shaking her hand. “From today, I am your personal guard.”

“I am the Moon Princess of Lunaria, the holy saintess,” she said to him. “You can call me Lena.”

“Nice to meet you, Lena.”

She smiled, shaking his hand firmly. He will never realize, she is Selena, his old friend from the original world. And she will never tell him.

A loud ruckus outside interrupted them.

The saintess looked out of the window. “Looks like some woman is running around,” she stated.

Leonard remembered Mira immediately. That crazy girl was probably doing something to lure out the Moon Princess. Turning around, he ran down the stairs from the tower. Lena followed him.

As today was quite an eventful day, she hoped that at least during the evening she would have a bit of quiet. Now, some lunatic woman was running around the courtyard, the guards and priests trying to catch her.

“What is happening again!” Lena demanded.

“This girl is not listening to us, Your Grace!” one of the guards said. “She is running around, and she has already killed several of our men.”

“Come on!” a young woman's voice echoed. “I cannot kill something already dead! I told you that multiple times!”

Lena recognized that voice immediately. Stepping outside, she saw a young woman running around. It was Mira. But her hair was now silver, shining under the moonlight. And her eyes were glowing red.

She would accept Leonard, but seeing Mira now, suddenly her blood boiled. She thought she would be happy when seeing her old friends, but nothing like that happened. Instead, the uneasiness and anger grew in her. She was just able to let go of her previous life and make this kingdom her own. Now, when she patched everything together, they came to wreak havoc? She won't let them!

“Catch her!”

“Your Grace!” Leonard said. “She is my friend. She is a bit crazy, but she is not a bad person.”

Lena looked him straight in his eyes. “Now,” she said.

Her dead servants started moving, trying to encircle Mira. But her eyes flashed red, and multiple men fell, not rising again. Seeing that, the living ones got anxious, afraid to go near, thinking she had killed them.

“No, no, no, Your Grace!” Mira laughed at her. “Using zombies to catch me doesn’t count. They are not proper undead after all, they are just corpses.”

Her living guards and priests with servants were confused by her words, but Lena knew exactly what she was talking about. Mira was able to distinguish the dead from the living, and she was able to cut their link with her magic. They were dropping like dead flies now, swarms of maggots spilling out of them. People were horrified.

“What are you doing, Mira?” Leonard decided to step in. “Why did you just not wait?”

“I wanted to,” she said. “But that friend of yours, Soren, tried to catch me after both of you left. So I thought, why not sift through her people, removing the dead from living?”

“Where is Kasian?” Leonard asked.

“Soren is fighting him,” she said.

Lena shook her head. So it was really Kasian. Seeing these two together right now, it made sense. So Kasian was the real Kasian from her original world. Her love. Man, who cheated on her, man who died on her.

“Good,” Lena said.

She clapped her hands together. A powerful force swept through the courtyard, stopping everyone in their tracks. Leonard and Mira turned to her, surprised by her pure power gliding over their skin, making it crawl. They wanted to move, but suddenly, they couldn’t. Under their feet, a red circle flashed, immobilizing them. Only her priests were able to move now.

“Catch them,” the saintess said to her priests. “Throw them into a dungeon. Catch Kasian, one of our new servants, and send him to my tower. With Soren. Both of them should be somewhere near.”